The blog is taking a break but in the meantime a few odds and sods which might be of interest to readers.
The Hazzard- Harrower- letters
In recent years the work of the Australian expatriate, Shirley Hazzard, has enjoyed renewed interest. Her novel, People in Glass Houses, about the United Nations and a lightly fictionalised report on her time there, and other books have been republished and found new readers.
According to the latest Roy Morgan Research quarterly Trust and Distrust report Peter Dutton’s nuclear plans are not shaping up as a big winner and, worse, are adding to his problems with women.
The latest research asked which form of energy do you most trust to ensure a reliable source of energy. Of the total sample 47% nominated renewables, 31% nuclear and 20% fossil fuels. When this is broken down by gender 56% of females support renewables compared with 38% of males.
Guess what? A study of about 1,500 climate policies in 35 countries found that the single most effective policy in reducing carbon emissions was a carbon tax.
Exactly the Rudd policy that Tony Abbott axed two decades ago.
The study, by a battery of scientists from around the world, was published in Science in August this year. They undertook a global, systematic ex-post evaluation to identify policy combinations implemented between 1998 and 2022 across 41 countries from six continents. The approach integrated a comprehensive climate policy data base with a machine learning based approach. The data base included the top three greenhouse gas emitters globally – China, the United States and India.
It is a rare event when the US Army publicly accuses a former Commander-in-Chief and his staff of being liars.
They didn’t use the word, but the Army’s statement about the Trump visit to Arlington Cemetery made it clear that every statement from Trump and his staff about the visit was a lie.
At a time when he’s in trouble on a number of other fronts – not least illegal use of artists’ music in his rallies and massively unpaid bills for use of rally venues and other suppliers – you have to wonder about his sanity. Or rather just accept that he is demented and get on with it.
The Trump campaign – as was to be expected – denied that they had broken the law with their Arlington Cemetery visit (see yesterday’s blog).
Now the Army has confirmed that the Trump actions were in contravention of the law. Sadly, they have declined to prosecute.
But for Australians it brings back memories of the 2001 Howard children overboard lie. If you don’t remember it, then Prime Minister John Howard, alleged seafaring refugees were throwing children overboard in a bid to get into Australia.
Arlington National Cemetery is a sacred place to the US military and all Americans. JFK, among others, is buried there and there is a certain symbolism to the cemetery being sited on land which was once Robert E. Lee’s.
To the draft-dodging Donald Trump it is just another site for a photo op.
It is now also the site of yet another Trump insult to US veterans, those in military service and the dead from war.
Imagine for a moment what would happen if an Australian politician had said about our veterans what Donald Trump had said about US veterans. To borrow an American colloquial political comment – they wouldn’t get elected as a dog-catcher.
Trump’s most astonishing comment about military service came when he awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom to the widow of the late Sheldon Adelson, Miriam. “That’s the highest award you can get as a civilian, it’s the equivalent of the Congressional Medal of Honor”, he said.
It is sometimes difficult to believe that the US is not headed irretrievably towards a new civil war. But a host of recent research suggests that among the massive problems and sheer insanity of many of its citizens – let alone that of one of the Presidential candidates – the situation is much more complex.
Australia has come up with some absolute shockers when advertising agencies have been tasked with promoting the country around the world.
Laura Bingle’s “Where the Bloody Hell are you?” (thank you Scott Morrison) was one of the worst but “put a shrimp on the barbie’ with Paul Hogan was not much better.
What’s the point of the Albanese Government? You might argue that at least it’s not a Morrison or Dutton Government but when it comes to achievements, crafting a cohesive narrative and acting on the many urgent national needs Australia faces there is not much evidence that it is capable of dealing with them and much evidence that it is timid and fatally risk adverse.